Policing and the Condition of England

Memory, Politics and Culture

Ian Loader and Aogán Mulcahy

Description

Citizens, it is said, have 'lost faith' in the English police. Opinion polls repeatedly show that trust in, and respect for, the police have declined precipitously from the historically high levels achieved during the 'golden age' of the 1950s. Successive decades of rising crime, political violence and urban disorder, miscarriages of justice, and declining effectiveness have left the police in what seems like a permanent crisis of legitimation. A once revered national institution has become thoroughly profane.

In this major new work on the relationship between English policing and culture, Ian Loader and Aogán Mulcahy reassess and revise this received sociological and popular wisdom on the fate that has befallen the English police. Paying close attention to the symbolic and cultural significance of the police, Loader and Mulcahy document the mix of profane and sacred sensibilities that struggle with one another to determine the contours of what they call English policing culture. They draw on documentary analysis of official 'representations' of policing, and oral historical research with citizens, police officers, former government ministers and civil servants, to show that, far from being 'demystified', policing is a cultural institution that remains deeply entangled with questions of subjectivity, recognition, belonging and collective identity.

This cultural sociology of English policing sheds new light on the social changes and conflicts that have called police authority into question in the decades since 1945 and offers an important appraisal of what is at stake in the contemporary cultural politics of policing.

Policing and the Condition of England

Memory, Politics and Culture

Ian Loader and Aogán Mulcahy

Table of Contents

Settings and Reorientations 1: Losing Faith?: Policing and Social Change in England since 1945 2: On Symbolic Power: Towards a Cultural Sociology of PolicingNarratives of Policing and Culture 3: The Eclipse of the English Bobby 4: The Fracturing of Police Authority 5: The Cultural Politics of Police, 'Race', and Nation 6: The Job and the Force 7: The Power of the Police Voice 8: Cultures of Police GovernancePast and Present in Contemporary Policing 9: English Policing and Contemporary Culture

Policing and the Condition of England

Memory, Politics and Culture

Ian Loader and Aogán Mulcahy

Reviews and Awards

"... a self-assured, richly textured thesis that is also innovative, engaging and politically committed ... it was a joy to read a book by two authors who reassert why the sociological meaning of policing remains such an important subject for sustained analysis." - Theoretical Criminology

"... quite masterful ... In eight complementary and elegantly interwoven chapters, the authors present an erudite and informative book that quite simply should be required reading for scholars of institutional orders and ordering." - American Journal of Sociology

"I found the book clear, direct, illuminating and fair ... The authors speak with wisdom about a troubling period of change in English life and views of authority, and they argue well the case for a hopeful democratic evolution, avoiding alarm or shortsighted, journalistic-style pedantry. This is an admirable work of sociocultural analysis." - American Journal of Sociology

"... a sophisticated analysis ... superbly written, insightful and provocative. It deserves the widest readership." - British Journal of Criminology

"The authors are to be congratulated for producing such an interesting and provocative analysis of the contemporary history of policing. The adoption of a cultural perspective sheds genuinely new light on such periods as the Thatcherite love-affair-gone-sour with the police ... They are also to be congratulated for telling the story so well: this book is genuinely a 'good read'." - British Journal of Criminology

"This is a powerful, sweeping analysis of what I suspect future generations will see as a crucial period in English policing and society. It is a challenging but ultimately stimulating read. It offers lessons, points to mistakes and charts the fall from the sacred to the profane." - Policing Today

"... a powerful academic study ... It has important observations and lessons which any student and practitioner should seriously consider." - Policing Today

"The imagery of the English bobby is explored, and its powerful underlying meanings are associated with a fond collective memory of the social order of the past as opposed to the threatening disorder of the present." - Times Higher Education Supplement